Smith-With-A-Hi Poem by Cicely Fox Smith

Signing on in the
Emerald Isle

Up comes a bloke in shellback style,
All fish hooks spunyarn and Stockholm tar,
Fist like a block and wrist like a spar,
And he shifts his quid and he says to the clerk,
“I ain’t no scholar; I makes my mark;
but I spells my name with a Hi,”
Says he,
“I spells my name with a Hi!”

“There’s lots o’ monikers twice as fancy,
Such as Fitzmedoodles and Montmorency;
There’s plenty as there’s a grander sound with,
An’ chaps that’s got ‘em I wouldn’t be found with
I was shipmates once with a bloke called Percy
De Burgh de Bewfort de Lordamercy,
And I give you my word at sailorisin’
He was no more use than a jug o’ pisin
So write me Smith with a Hi,”
Says he,
“Just write me down with a Hi!”

“It’s a name as ‘as served me near and far,
From the Tail o’ the Bank to Astoria Bar;
It’s a name as I’ve carried both far and near,
From old Point Lynas to Sandridge Pier,
And I’ve got no use for, I don’t give a darn
For your
y’s
amidship an’
e’s
astern,
Nor yet no siphons nor nothink o’ that;
I spells myself with a Hi - that’s flat.
I’m just plain Smith with a Hi,”
Says he,
“You write me down with a Hi!”